I have realized over the past few days that this whole "weird" thing is raising my anxiety. The people it's aimed at might just embrace it. (Remember "deplorable"?) And I have spent a lot of my life learning to love being "weird". Learning to stop trying to bend myself into fitting others' expectations so they won't give me That Look and say, "You are WEIRD..."
How do we tell kids it's okay to be weird while they also hear, "Don't vote for the weird guy"?
Being able to say that about myself with love and joy was a big step in my healing. And even though I'm not a kid anymore and I do understand what's really being said, some unconscious part of me wants to go hide in my school library and cry while the librarian covers for me again and says she asked me to help with something and my teacher must not have gotten the message.
@weirdfizz i hear you. this was bothering me earlier. b/c i have embraced my weird & it's no longer an insult to me. it's ok that i am.
so to have that be connected w/ donold was an immediate defensive FUCK NO!!
i think tho, it's a diff kind of weird. & explaining to children that you can be all kinds of weird but don't be a criminal. don't cheat & lie. that's a weird that isn't ok. kids will get that.
& i'm sorry to hear it's stirred up old trauma. you've come so far. hold to that. 😊
Love to your inner child — as well as to any of us whose inner kids are still hurting in any way. None of our inner kids deserved such hurt sadness. Love, liberation & upliftment to them all.
@weirdfizz I felt that about the "weird" thing too. I mean, some of my best friends are weird. And some would say that I am too.
Being weird is being uniquely beautiful and talented and being yourself, even if it's unconventional. But it's good weird. Not destructive weird. Not making stuff up to make yourself look better weird. Not pretending you're something else weird. Not hurting other people weird.
I'd prefer a different term but can't think of one that's PG enough for Harris to use.
@nonayadambidnes @weirdfizz I have similar concerns, but I'm rolling with it. : )
@AskTheDevil @weirdfizz I'd actually prefer the term creepy for Trump and all. Some of the stuff they do, the way they act. Stephen Miller.
@nonayadambidnes @weirdfizz M too. But the word that they went nuts over was "weird".
It does annoy me, because that is the word I use for myself and my friends, but we on the left like to share things, right?
Maybe some of them will learn that everyone has their own weird, and that's okay.
@weirdfizz My answer to that has been to mentally bifurcate weird into "Bjork weird" and "Stephen Miller weird". Tell your kids to be embrace "Bjork weird" and eschew "Stephen Miller weird".
@Boyceaz That's a really good specification.
@weirdfizz There's weird inexplicable like defies explanation and weird wonderful. Like anything else with many interpretations, it's all in usage, nuance, and how we explain things to children, I think. It's simply language. I don't think the weird phase will last and if they're bothered by it, I'm all for it. Kids are smart enough to know that adults who want everyone to be one way, their way, aren't weird wonderful but weird what the fuck. 🤷 My two weird cents.
I’m a weird adult, formerly weird kid. I don’t think we have too awfully much to worry about with regard to kids. Helping understand intent to hurt with words is the teachable lesson then, not nuance. When older, they can distinguish connotative differences, embracing weird as a word that captures uniqueness for self & invective as unkindness. Calling Trump weird is such an ironic selfown by Repubs.
The personal issue is healing the inner parts of ourselves. That’s ground zero.☮️🩷
@weirdfizz As an adult I get it, but as a kid weird always has a negative connotation. The bullies will always use it as a put dow. Telling children that being different is not necessarily weird and different is good may help. It's a juggling act with kids and bullying. Many are adding creepy to the adjective. Allowing for good weird and bad weird.
Kids aren't going to get it. Not all of them. Most likely not the younger ones. Many of them will pick up, "It's not nice to call people names, and it's okay if I'm weird, but weird people shouldn't be President." By the time the do understand it, that still will have done harm.
And I'm kind of afraid that proudly saying I'm weird will turn into people thinking I'm saying that's who I voted for. Again, they embraced "deplorable".